New Delhi: Air India formulates rules on unruly passengers after the back-to-back episodes of MLAs — Shiv Sena’s Ravindra Gaikwad and TMC’s Dola Sen — last month.
In a circular dated April 13, Air India cites examples of unruly behaviour by Dola Sena where she dealyed a flight by 39 minutes because she refused to vacate the seat near the emergency exit occupied by her wheelchair-bound mother. The circular then mentions Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad delaying a flight by 90 minutes and YSRC MP Mithun Reddy assaulting an AI officer in November 2015.
The airlines says “even a hotel on the roadside has a board ‘Rights of Admission Reserved’, AI therefore must have a procedure for handling of unruly passengers. It says the unruly behaviour does not require any provocation and therefore it is proposed:
1. When such an incident occurs the first person to be informed is the Airport Manager/MD/RD/CD and CMD office.
2. No direct interaction with the media by any employee.
3. FIR/police complaint to be filed immediately under the relevant seciton of the IPC.
4. Property damage to be assessed and claimed.
5. Financial damage to be charged as under from the unruly passengers ad fine:
a. For delay up to one hour: Rs 5 lakh
b. For delay beyond one hour and up to two hours: Rs 10 lakh.
c. For delay beyond 2 hours: Rs 15 lakh.
These are for now, proposals and not a rule.
Air India lifted the travel ban on Gaikwad on April 7, but a section of national carriers pilots refused to fly him unless he apologised for allegedly assaulting a senior cabin crew on board a flight last month.
Gaikwad expressed regret for the incident but did not apologise in a letter to civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapati Raju.
